Google might be able to avoid antitrust action in Europe thanks to a revised search proposal, which a European official said "more appropriately addresses" its concerns.

"I can tell you that the new proposal more appropriately addresses the need for any commitments to be able to cover future developments," Joaquín Almunia, vice president of the European Commission responsible for Competition Policy, said in a Tuesday speech.

Among the concessions, Almunia said Google has agreed - for certain categories - to make links to its rivals more prominent.

"In my opinion, the new proposal makes these links significantly more visible," Almunia said. "A larger space of the Google search result page is dedicated to them. Rivals have the possibility to display their logo next to the link, and there will be a dynamic text associated to each rival link to better inform the user of its content."

The proposal would also set up an auction for advertisers who wanted to secure specific search queries. "This is important to also ensure that smaller specialized search operators can be displayed," Almunia said.

Google has also agreed to make it easier for rival services to opt out of having their content used on Google's services without the fear of having all links pulled from Google search results (which Yelp complained about in 2011). Though it pledged to do that before, Google has now "improved the granularity of the opt-out that is offered to third-party websites," Almunia said today.

Meanwhile, Google will not stop publishers from porting campaigns they used on Google to other services, allowing them more freedom when it comes to Internet advertising.

"Finally, in a commitment that in my view deserves careful attention, an independent monitoring trustee would be put in place to provide assistance to the Commission in ensuring that the principles outlined in Google's proposals would be implemented in practice," Almunia said.

"We have reached a key moment in this case," he said.

The EU probe dates back to Nov. 2010, when the commission opened an antitrust investigation into Google over allegations that the company had abused its dominant position in online search. Google issued its response in July 2012 and has long denied any wrongdoing.

In March, however, the commission formally informed Google that it might violate EU antitrust rules in four specific ways: prioritizing its own services in search results; using third-party content on its own services without permission; as well as restrictive rules for AdWords's customers and their ability to transfer campaigns to rival services.

As a result, Google served up some ideas for how it might ease those concerns and avoid antitrust action, from clearly labeling promoted links to Google-owned content to displaying links to three rival, specialized search services.

"Now, with the significant improvements on the table, I think we have the possibility to work again and seek to find an effective solution," Almunia said today.

It will likely take a few weeks to finalize the wording in Google's proposal, and Almunia will also seek comment from those who complained about Google's practices in the first place. That includes FairSearch Europe, which said today that it will reserve judgment until it can review Google's proposal in full.

"If our investigation on this improved proposal is satisfactory, I will continue the Commitments route and end up with a formal decision next Spring," Almunia said. "Otherwise, I will be forced to turn to a procedure under Article 7 of the Antitrust Regulation: this would mean sending a Statement of Objections to Google in the coming months, to which Google could formally respond in writing and during an Oral Hearing."

If the deal goes through and Google does not make the promised changes, it could face fines - much like Microsoft had to pay $732 million over its "browser ballot" glitch earlier this year.

About the Author

Before joining PCMag.com, Chloe covered financial IT for Incisive Media in NYC and technology policy for The National Journal's Technology Daily in Washington, DC. She has held internships at NBC's Meet the Press, washingtonpost.com, the Tate Gallery press office in London, Roll Call, and Congressional Quarterly. She graduated with a bachelor's deg... See Full Bio

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